New York City’s socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced Monday the city will open five government-owned food stores by 2029 and will offer a 30% discount on bread and cheese as well as “a core basket of everyday groceries.”
The promise of city-owned grocery stores was a marquee pledge in Mr. Mamdani’s shock 2025 campaign win. He said on Monday the new stores would offer cheaper food to combat rising prices for New York City’s lower-income residents, but anyone will be allowed to shop at the government stores.
The first store will open at the end of 2027 in a low-income neighborhood in the Bronx.
Eggs, milk, seafood, chicken, fruit and vegetables will be offered at a 30% discount below retail prices, along with other “critical” groceries, including cheese and bread, the mayor said.
Mr. Mamdani said the city has set aside $70 million to build the stores.
City government, Mr. Mamdani said, “is stepping in to make people’s lives more affordable.”
Critics immediately bashed the idea.
Joseph Hernandez, a Republican candidate for New York State Comptroller, said grocery stores operate off a very small profit margin of 1% to 3%, and that Mr. Mamdani’s promised discount will result in millions in lost revenue.
“You’re promising 30% off,” Mr. Hernandez said in response to Mr. Mamdani. “That gap doesn’t vanish. Taxpayers cover it.”
The new stores, he said, would put neighborhood bodegas out of business by selling well below retail prices.
“This isn’t affordability. It’s a tax hike disguised as a discount and a private business killer affecting mostly hard working Hispanic immigrants just trying to do the right thing and make a living,” Mr. Hernandez posted on social media.
Mr. Mamdani framed the plan as one that would offer both affordability and stability for consumers.
He said that once per month, the five grocery stores will set prices for the core set of goods at 30% below “typical” retail prices. The prices will remain unchanged for the entire month, he said.
“That means no weekly fluctuations, nor sticker shock at the checkout line,” Mr. Mamdani announced at a press conference staged in a Brooklyn food pantry.
The mayor described the new grocery stores as a first-of-its kind model. The stores would be privately operated but with requirements that those running the stores lower prices, improve access and meet standards for “quality and accountability” that will be guided by a city-run, interagency task force.
Jobs must also be paid with “family sustaining wages and benefits,” and a commitment to allow workers to organize.
The city has issued a request for “qualified grocers or firms” to apply to run the stores.
Bodega owners are opposed to the stores and say by undercutting retail prices, the mayor will put them out of business.
Mr. Mamdani said his proposals will not steal all of the bodega customers because the government-run stores won’t have butchers or sell hot food, beer or cigarettes.
Government-run stores opened in recent years in Baldwin, Florida and Erie, Kansas but eventually closed.
In September, the city of Atlanta helped fund the opening of Azalea Fresh Market, a municipal grocery store in the downtown area, which city officials described as “a collaborative effort” between the government, community members and independent grocers.
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